|
|
|
NLCS Game 1: The Game is the Game
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
NLCS Game 1: The Game is the Game
This morning, almost assuredly, you're going to hear someone tell you about the meaning of last night's Phillies loss. You're going to hear about what last night's game âmeant.â
You may hear about how it shows that the Phils are susceptible to the Giants' pitching, or maybe how the win is going to let the Giants play loose. Maybe it will be about how the game shifted the momentum, definitively proved that the Phillies need to re-sign (or not re-sign) Jayson Werth, or about how now â as opposed to 24 hours before now â San Francisco believes it can win. Maybe it will be more meta: how the fact that suffering their first game one loss in their last eight tries is the signal for the decline of the franchise, or maybe you'll just hear about someone â the talker â knew they were going to lose all along. All of this will be wrong.
Here is, in a word, what last night's game means: nothing. Actually that isn't wholly correct: last night's game means that for one night an average outing from Giants' best weapon was slightly better than an average outing from the Phils' best weapon. That's it. Both teams played hard, neither made any game-changing decisions, no one was hurt. If they replayed it 10 times the Phils probably win six, which means that they would also probably lose four. This was one of those four.
So no, the Giants don't own the Phils, the Phils aren't in any serious trouble, nobody's backs are against any walls, your home team is still going to win the series, and it still isn't going to take them seven games to do it. They're a better team who, for one night, was outplayed by a worse team.
Sometimes a game is just a game.
Onto the Notes â¦
- You want something to be encouraged by? Look at the Phils' performance against the Giants' closer. The Phils made Brian
- Charlie Manuel is obviously a quote machine, and last night was no exception. Re: the Phils offense:
âYou know, I think, yeah, I think we need to hit better. We gotta hit better and we have to score more runs, of course.â
Of course. On how he's going to plan for Sanchez:
âGet more hits. Score more runs.â
I know I'm supposed to remain impartial about guys I'm covering ⦠but Charlie's fucking awesome.
- Tweeted this last night, but it's worth mentioning here as well: In four postseason go-rounds Jimmy has never hit over .237. He's at .067 in 2010.
- Playoff experience might not matter â I'd argue it does, but I at least understand the counterpoint â but playoff baseball is definitely a different ballgame. Managers manage differently, players push harder and the crowd actively tries to affect the outcome in a way they just don't for the first 162.
- Jesus Christ does Bruce Bochy have a dome on him. It isn't just the size (enormous, obviously) either, the thing looks like it's made out of concrete and carbon steel. It's like a Stonehenge block with eyes. If Bochy were born in a different era he would either be immediately hailed as a king, or the cavemen who slayed him and began using his head as a weapon would be able to wield it to rule all of Berrengia. Very impressive up close.
- For all the time and energy we spend worrying about personnel decisions, sports sure can throw us some curveballs. The two most important Giants players in last night's game â Pat Burrell and Cody Ross â both were picked up off the scrapheap.
- There was a lot of talk about the strike zone last night â congrats Derryl Cousins, you're famous â but per Brooks Baseball's fantastic site, it was at least consistent.
- Fun Derryl Cousins fact #1: Cousins was Jim Joyce's crew chief. Joyce is, of course, the Armando Galarraga game ump.
- Fun Derryl Cousins fact #2: That is actually how you spell his first name. It's ridiculous.
- More fun facts: When a relatively obscure player has a breakout game you'll often find out new and exciting information about him. Today's example? Cody Ross grew up wanting to be a Rodeo Clown.
- When the Phils first started making the playoffs, the grounds crews really stepped their game up with new and interesting designs in the grass. Now? Nothing. Almost makes me not want to buy Scotts Miracle-Gro.
- Finally, a selfish one: The baseball season is way too long. I'm writing these notes outside after the game and it has to be a million degrees below zero out here (update: After consulting the website google.com I've come to understand that the aforementioned number may be slightly inaccurate).
Back for game two tomorrow.
[...] NLCS Game 1: The Game is the GamePhiladelphia Citypaper (blog)Fun Derryl Cousins fact #2: that is actually how you spell his first name. It [...]
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
